Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 with 3GB on the way, say reports

HEXUS hasn't reviewed that many Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 graphics cards. In fact we looked closely at just one example, the EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 SC Gaming, through we did look at two GTX 1050 Ti based cards when they were launched back in October 2016; one from EVGA again, and another from MSI. While the GTX 1050 Ti cards come with 4GB of GDDR5 equipped the standard non-Ti version only offers 2GB.

Now it seems that there is demand for an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 with a larger frame buffer. As HEXUS noted it our original review, the 2GB as standard would soon be pushed to its limits in 1080p gaming, especially with the more modern titles with higher resolution textures and so on. Thus a GTX 1050 3GB looks set to launch, at least in China, according to VideoCardz and its Chinese sources.

Here we have Nvidia again plugging the gaps in its lineup as it becomes rather mature. In this case, of course, the gap is between the aforementioned GTX 1050 with 2GB and the GTX 1050 Ti with 4GB. However there is a word of 'warning' - it is possible the memory bus width will be reduced from 128-bit to 96-bit on this SKU.

The above news sounds similar to the formulation and launch of the GTX 1060 with 5GB GDDR5 in China. It is such a big market that various niches are still worthy of investment in product development time for these tweener models.

GTX 10 supplies arrive in force

In recent weeks I have been watching GPU prices slowly return to normality, especially for those interested in Nvidia GPUs. Various recent reports have heralded Nvidia graphics cards now being available at RRPs here in the UK - just look at the deals sites and our HEXUS Retail Therapy Forum, for example.

We all know supply and demand move prices and thanks in part to the downturn in crypto mining activity using GPUs there are lots more graphics cards becoming available to retailers. Nvidia is currently crowing about ship-loads of graphics cards heading to suppliers and graphics cards flying onto shelves. With this kind of action we might even start to see some prices below RRPs in coming weeks/months. Fingers crossed for this to continue, and for some keener pricing on AMD graphics cards too.

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So going from 4 0.5GB chips to 3 1GB chips? Higher numbers are better, but the cut to bandwidth isn't worth it IMO - unless nvidia have managed to source some faster chips to make up for it, I expect this to be slower than the 2GB 1050

I guess at current RAM prices every GB you can shave off helps the price, but at the expense of making the ram narrower? I have to wonder if that is going to be any better than a 2GB card in performance.

Nice of them to save the world with their large shipment of graphics cards, but *cough*GPP*cough*, they aren't the messiah they are just very naughty boys.

My reading of the story is that it's not yet confirmed whether the card will be 128bit or 96bit - if it's the former it wouldn't be the first time NVidia have done asymmetric capacity (i.e. 2 1GB chips and 2 0.5GB chips). Whether 0.5GB chips are sufficiently cheaper to make that worthwhile, OTOH…

Also aren't there some games now that flat refuse to run unless the GPU reports > 2GB of VRAM?